Lesson Plan of Trigraphs and Silent Letters

English Grade V

Students’ Learning Outcomes

· Articulate and syllabify words containing digraphs, trigraphs and silent letters.

Information for Teachers

· This lesson focuses on trigraphs and silent letters. All words will be syllabified.

· A trigraphs is comprised of three letters that makes one sound. Such as in the word ‘match’ the three letters ‘tch’ at the end make only one sound.

· A trigraph is a phoneme which consists of three letters: e.g. tch in catch; thr in thread; spr in spread; ear in fear, etc.

· Some common trigraphs are nth, sch, scr, shr, spl, spr, squ, str, thr.

· You can’t teach all these trigraphs in this lesson.

· You must practice words with digraphs and trigraphs throughout the year in different lessons, whenever new words are taught.

TRIGRAPHS
Sch	Scr	Shr	Sph	Spl	Spr	Squ	Str	Thr
Schedule Scheme Scholar Scholarship School	Scrapbook Scratch Screen Scream Scribble Script	Shred Shriek Shrill Shrine Shrank	Sphere	Splash Splendid Split	Sprang Spray Spread Spring Sprinkle Sprite	Square Squash Squeak Squeeze Squirrel	Straight Strange Strap Straw Strawberry Stream Street Strength String Strong	Thread Threat Three Threw Thrice Thrill Throat Throne Through Throw

· Silent letters are the letters in the words that are not pronounced but appear in the spellings. They make no difference to the sound.

· Silent ABC list and Digraphs/Trigraphs list:

A is silent in head, bread and deaf.

B stays quiet in lamb, bomb, climb, comb, thumb, tomb, crumb, doubt

C is not said when saying muscle, scissors, hander kerchief, sandwich, scene and scent

D is silent in Wednesday, hander kerchief, sandwich handsome, landscape, and grandson

E is silent in pirate, more, have, give, and serve, bridge, more, careful, hope, fate

Only one f sound is made when saying stiff, cuff, sniff

G is silent in straight, light, high, height, thought

H is silent in honor, heir, night, hour, hurrah, and exhibition

I is silent in business, fashion and cushion

K is silent in know, knee, knock, knot, knife

L is silent in talk, almond, calf, half, yolk, chalk, calm, talk

M is silent in Mnemonic (read it like this ‘ne-mon-ik’. It means learning spellings with tricks)

N is silent in autumn, column

O is silent in leopard

P is silent in cupboard, receipt, pneumonia, psychology

Only one R is pronounced when saying diarrhea (say it like this: dai-ri-ah)

S is silent in island

T is silent in often, fasten, listen, and castle

U is silent in build, guest, guitar, tongue, guide, dialogue

W is silent in whole, write, sword, answer, two, wrist

Y is silent in prayer, player

Only Z is pronounced when saying buzz

· Syllables are the smallest unit of sounds with one vowel sound in it. Students have learnt this concept in previous classes

· The lesson must reinforce the concepts learnt earlier.

Material / Resources

Chalk/ marker, board, duster, flashcards or illustrated chart of words having trigraphs in the initial, middle and final positions, colored chalks

Worm up activity

· Ask students about the definitions and examples of graphs, digraphs, trigraphs and silent letters.

· Give students some words to pronounce which have silent letters in them such as know, knife, knight, write, yacht, wrong, whistle, often

Development

Activity 1

· Make flashcards of the following pictures or draw them on the board

· Ask the students to name the pictures.

Knight

Sign

Hour

Foreign

· Write the words given in brackets on the board. (screen, splash, chick, spread, straight, thread, chair, school)

Screen	Splash	Chick
Thread	Spread	School
Straight	Chair	Write

· Call students one by one to the board to identify, by understanding the trigraphs in initial and final positions

· Students must correct if any one makes a mistake.

· Appreciate the students who give correct answers.

· Ask students one by one to pronounce the words correctly.

· Practice this with all words and maximum students.

· You must encourage weak students to participate.

· You can add more words containing trigraphs.

· Make sure that the students are familiar with the words you choose.

Activity 2

Thumb	Know	Listen	Column
Foreigner	Often	Honest	Autumn
lamb	Castle	Column	Knife

· Ask the students to identify the silent letter in each word given in the box below.

· Students make groups of words in their notebooks, as shown below (first one has been done as an example for understanding)

Silent ‘k’: knight ______________

Silent ‘n’: ______________

Silent ‘b’: _______________

Silent‘t’: _______________

Silent ‘h’: _______________

Silent ‘g’: _______________

· You can also provide the silent ABC list to all students to learn spellings of words and to enhance students’ vocabulary.

Activity 3

· Now ask the students to tell how many syllables each word has.

· Do this practice on the board for each word one by one.

· Students copy the words in their notebooks with proper syllable marking.

· Al students practice the correct pronunciation of words with their partner.

Sum up / Conclusion

· Ask for examples of the concepts learnt.

Assessment

· Assess students’ understanding during responses and activities.

· Provide support when needed.

· Assess students through written work.

Follow up

· Learn spellings of all the words with trigraphs and silent letters learnt in the lesson.

· Make sentences of the words in activity 2.

· You must have dictation of the words often to ensure learning.